“Am I in trouble?” Senior Torriuna Hobbs said it was one of the few reasons she could come up with after being called to the Stuttgart High School office.

Hobbs couldn’t have been further from the truth as school officials presented her the President’s Volunteer Service Award.

“I was surprised,” Hobbs, 18, said. “… There’s a letter personally from (President Barack Obama) with his signature congratulating me on my community service. I was so happy.”

The President’s Volunteer Service award recognizes Americans who have volunteered significant amounts of their time to serve their communities and their country. The Prudential Spirit of Community Award program presents the award on behalf of the president.

“I am so proud of Torriuna and she absolutely deserves this award,” Stuttgart teacher Madeline Dragich said. “She is such a driven young woman.”

Hobbs received the award after completing 140 hours of community service in the Stuttgart Summer of Solutions program from August to June 2012. La’Taaka Harvey said Hobbs was introduced to the program after she sought out volunteer opportunities for the summer — which is rare by itself.

“She is a good kid who just needed an opportunity to help,” Harvey said. “I’m very proud of her.”

The eight-week program sought to “give a voice to youth through community service and leadership development exploration.” There were 12 participating students overall who spent 40 hours volunteering each week.

“She volunteered as at a teacher’s assistant at the PAE summer school in the mornings and then participated in ACT prep and leadership development courses in the afternoons for eight weeks during the summer,” Dragich said. “She was always upbeat, energetic and ready to dive into community service as well as develop herself as a leader.”

Hobbs said she worked with second graders to help build their reading and writing skills.

“It’s a good program — it teaches you a lot about community service and helping people,” she said, adding that the students “were a handful. Each and every one of them I got to have a bond with, especially John William (Holsted.)”

Her favorite experience with the students was making paper maches.

“It was a four-day process working with the students,” she said. “It was messy and sticky and we had fun.”

The daughter of Redeanna and Frederick Terry, Hobbs said she plans to major in broadcast journalism with a minor in psychology. She will be attending PCCUA-Stuttgart upon graduation before transferring to the University of Arkansas-Monticello.

In addition to her volunteer work, she is in the school’s Key Club and Leo Club.